NEWS

Overview events Basque Country nr.4, period the 24th of March until the 27th of April

Leftwing parties in Cuba, Argentina, Chile, Peru and Venezuela condemn the banning of the leftwing Basque political party Batasuna, now one year ago. The banning, with a special designed law, is also used for the predecessors of Batasuna, Herri Batasuna and Euskal Herritarok. Batasuna was put on the EU-list of terrorist organisations by Spain in June 2003.
In Madrid the 70 years olds Lluis Maria Xirinacs, priest and ex- senator for the leftwing Catalan ERC, is condemned by the Audiencia Nacional to two years in prison because of 'glorifying terrorism'. He called himself at a meeting in Barcelona a 'friend of the armed organisation ETA and the party Herri Batasuna'.
At the 25th of March the car of the girlfriend of the Basque political prisoner Adolfo Abasolo, in which she travels with 3 friends, is total-loss in a car-accident. They were on the way back from the prison of Teruel. Nobody is wounded. At the 14th of April another 2 cars with friends and familymembers of prisoners get total-loss. At the 17th of April 3 people are wounded during a trip to a prisoners-visit when they crash into a van and have to be taken to hospital.
Accordinbg to the prisonhelporganisation Etxerat only 8 Basque political prisoners of the 700 are in prisons in the Basque Country itself and there were since the beginning of this year 120 transfers of Basque political prisoners to prisons in Spain. These figures are made know on the weekly Friday protests in the Basque Country in support of the prisoners; in different towns and villages 5000 people demonstrate.
The Basque leftwing party Aralar, a split of Batasuna, calls for a united Basque list for the European elections of the 10th of June, at the bases of the 'Bergara Initiative': for the defence for the right of selfdetermination and 2 adjustments Aralar did: one about pluralism and one about the use of political means only.
In Bilbao at the 27th of March 3000 people of Gurusoak, the organisation of family-members of Basque youth who are in prison, are tortured or condemned to high prison sentences, demonstrate. They also protest against the murder by a Spanish police officer of Gurusoak-member Angel Berrueta at the 13th of March in Irunea and against the death of Kontxi Sanchez, who died of a heart attack after a charge of the Basque police Ertzaintza. (see Overview nr. 2)
In Madrid 20.000 members of the Partido Popular gather in a bull-fighting arena to say goodbye to ex-Prime Minister Aznar. In the PP people are convinced that the election defeat was the result of a 'smear campaign of the left' after the bombs of the 11th of March. Truth is however that the lies of the PP about the perpetrators of the bombings were the reason. According to the Financial Times police and the fire-brigade knew from the first moment on that the explosives used were known from the arsenal of ETA. The PP doesn't want to know of any mistakes; the ex-Minister of Internal Affairs Angel Acebes, who maintained even on election day that ETA was the perpetrator, was appointed to secretary-general of the party. PP-friend and head of the Spanish judges Jesus Cardenal offers also help: he sends an official writing to all courts in the country ordering to prosecute all people who protested at the PP-offices on the night before election day. Also Silvio Berlusconi, friend of Aznar, helps: a week after the bombings he says he 'can't imagine that 4 Bedouins of Al Kaida' did it and that he can't believe 'ETA didn't play a part in the bombings'.
At the 29th of March the Basque political prisoners Ainara Gorostiaga, Mikel Soto, Aurken Sola and Jorge Txokarro are released after spent two years in jail without a charge. Investigative judge Baltasar Garzon had put them in conditional terms for 2 years before it became clear that there was no evidence against them whatsoever. Joseba Azkarraga of the Justice department of the Basque government demands that Garzon is immediately put out of his profession and that al his investigations must be investigated. The 4 were suspected of the murder on UPN councillor Jose Javier Mujika, but Garzon has for that Andoni Otegi and Oscar Zelarain, who are imprisoned in France, accused now and asked for their extradition. Otegi and Zelarain already declared in September 2002 that they did the murder. Ainara Gorostiaga declared under torture by the Guardia Civil to the judge to be involved in the murder, but that declaration proved to be false now.
Ainara Gorostiaga testifies against the Basque newspaper GARA about the way she was interrogated: naked in a cell, numerous times 'La Bolsa' (the sack) over the head, sometimes 3 or 4 at once so they couldn't be bitten, exhausting exercises, beatings with the flat hand or a magazine. At a certain moment she was given a gun with which, according to the Guardia Civil, the councillor was murdered, and she could choose between collaboration or murder. She had to perform a fake press conference in which she had to denounce torture, she had to sing the 'Eusko Gudariak' (the song of the Basque soldier') and shout 'Long live the Guardia Civil'. She slept 4 hours in 5 days. The Guardia Civil let her know that her mother was arrested too and was being tortured. Before the judge Ainara told her story, but he said she lied and put her in prison.
In Brussels the court decides at the 30th of March that the extradition request of Spain for the Basque/Belgium political refugees Rakel Garcia and Luis Moreno is rejected. The Belgian public prosecutor appeals. The case has to be re-judged and is at the 14th of April sent back to the court. A different judge has now to decide.
The scientific philosopher and professor Alfontso Martinez Lizarduikoa of the Basque University UPV is arrested at orders of Garzon at the 31st of March at the door of his house and taken to Madrid to be put in the prison hospital. According to Garzon Lizarduikoa is guilty of 'collaboration of the financial apparatus of the armed organisation ETA'. He would have been an intermediate for the apprehending of so-called 'revolutionary taxes'. Numerous colleague's and students protest against his arrest. At the 13th of April he is released on a bail of 30.000 euro.
At the 31st of March Theo van Boven, special reporter about torture for the UN, reacts on criticism of the Spanish government on his report about torture in Spain and the Basque Country. Van Boven complains on Spanish institutes who do nothing against torture and even not recognise the existence of torture.
In Boussou near the French border in Belgium the Basques Jon Lopez Gomez and Diego Ugarte Lopez de Arkaute are arrested by the Belgian police. They are accused of 'collaboration respectively membership of the armed organisation ETA'. The Spanish Justice department immediately calls for their extradition, to try the new European extradition order. The Belgian Justice department however, wants them to be judged for the possession and use of false papers. Lopez has a conviction standing open for 17 years for the accusation of setting fire to a bus in 1997.
At the 2nd of April the prisonhelporganisation Askatasuna reveals its annual report 2003 in Baiona. Spokesman Jean- François Lefort concludes that the mask of Spain has fallen off and that they have set a course right against all human rights treaties in systematic torture and more repression towards people in the Basque Country. The notorious incommunicado- detention became a rule when Basques are arrested.
Arnaldo Otegi, former spokesman of the banned party Batasuna and currently representative of the fraction Sozialista Abertzaleak in the Basque regional parliament, is convicted at the 2nd of April by the High Court in the Basque Country to 15 months in prison and 8 years relief of his civil rights. Otegi was convicted for 'glorifying terrorism' because he called at a demonstration for 'applause for all freedom fighters'. Otegi appeals at the Spanish High Court. Before, the parliamentarian Jon Salaberria was convicted to 12 months in prison and exclusion of the political work for 7 years, when he has said in a debate about human rights violations that 'ETA defends the legitimate rights of the Basque people'.
In Dax in France Iñaki Esparza is arrested in a operation of the Spanish and French police, in Angoulême the same day Alberto López de Lacalle and Mercedes Chivite are arrested also. The Spanish minister for Internal Affairs Acebes gave directly a statement that the 3 were the leadership of ETA. Later in Lourdes and in the French Basque Country 2 houses of the arrested are searched and explosives and weapons are found. In the houses Jean-Marie Saint-Pée and Josetxo Zeberio are arrested.
Thousands of people demonstrate at the 3rd of April in Bilbo under the slogan 'Orain, autodeterminazioa', Self-determination, now. Otegi spoke to the people present and demanded concrete steps of the governing PNV towards the process of self- determination in the Basque Country. Otegi also said that 'the left had done their homework and was prepared to act flexible and pragmatic'.
At the 6th of April the Basque political prisoners Loren Arkotxa, Miren Josune Aranburu and Imanol Esnaola are released on bail of 30.000 euro each. At the 8th of May 2003 they were arrested in the police operation against Udalbiltza, the political self- organisation of city councillors, together with Xabier Iragorri, Xabier Alegria and Joseba Garmendia, at orders of judge Garzón. They were accused of 'tempering with society money'. At the 29th of April 2003 8 other members of Udalbiltza, Lander Etxeberria, Miriam Campos, Leire Idoiaga, Eider Casanova, Karmele Urbistondo, Larraitz Sanzberro, Oskar Goñi and Txema Jurado were also arrested and several buildings were closed down. Udalbiltza became a target of Madrid since her establishment in 1999 and was branded as 'illegal counter force'. At the 20th of April 3 others, Oskar Goñi, Lander Etxeberria and Txema Jurado are released on a bail of 30.000 euro each. The 4 remaining in prison are also accused of involvement in other organisations: Miriam Campos with Xaki, the organisation who worked for international solidarity, Karmelo Urbistondo has served 6 years already for another case but remains in prison, Xabier Alegria has to answer his involvement in EKIN, KAS (both part of the Basque liberation movement) and the newspaper Egunkaria and Joseba Garmendia was arrested during the operation of Garzon against the Herriko Taberna's, the left wing popular bars.
One day later Xarlo Etxezaharreta, director of the Basque magazine 'Kalegorria' is released on a bail of 60.000 euro. He was arrested at the 28th of September in Abadiño by the Spanish police. As a French citizen he was actually abducted by the Spanish authorities.
The Spanish High Court closes the case of the disappearance of Joxe Migel Etxeberria, who was lost in June 1980 in the North of the Basque Country. The Spanish-Basque Batallion, a group of fascists who operated in the same style as the Spanish death squads GAL, declared to have abducted him and that they would kill him. His body was never found. Now, 24 years later, the judge refuses to hear an important witness of the Batallion, and says there is no evidence whatsoever of a crime.
At the Topagunea in Itsasondo there are in the weekend of the 10th of April more than 20.000 youngsters present. The Topagunea is organised by the Basque youth movement and was visited by numerous foreign organisations from a.o. Ireland, Corsica, Uruguay, Germany, The Netherlands, Denmark, South Africa and Australia.
At the 11th of April tens of thousands of people throughout the whole Basque Country take part in the celebration of 'Aberri Eguna', the national Basque festivity day. There was no united celebration of the political parties, due to the dismissive attitude of the governing PNV.
During the 3rd congress of the 'Nazio Eztabaida Gunea', the National Debate Forum, again concrete steps are formulated that have to lead to the political solution of the political conflict in the Basque Country. In the Forum are numerous people on personal account of all political parties and from the whole Basque society.
At the 12th of April the prosecution of the Basque political prisoner Paulo Elkoro for his involvement in an attack on a barrack of the Guardia Civil starts. Elkoro was extradited in November 2003 by Germany to Spain and is now waiting his trial in prison in Madrid. Another accusation in the extradition order was 'support of ETA', but no charges are filed yet. This accusation is based on a declaration of 2 people who were tortured in the hands of the Guardia Civil, especially to blame Elkoro.
The Basque political prisoners Txus Goikoetxea, Sebas Lasa and Zigor Larredonda are in hunger strike for one month now. They protest against the isolation-politics and demand the unification of all Basque political prisoners. Since the bombings of 11 March the situation of the Basque political prisoners became worse and Basque are threatened and beaten by prison staff nearly every day.
At the 16th of April the ex-directors of the Spanish secret service CESID are again relieved from charges by the Spanish High Court. The two, Emilio Alonso Manglano and Javier Calderón were before convicted to 3 years in prison because tapping the offices of the now banned party Herri Batasuna. According to the High Court tapping is in these circumstances no criminal behaviour.
In Chatellerault José Luis Campo, Iñigo Elizegi and Inocente Soria are arrested by the French police and accused of 'collaboration with the armed organisation ETA'. At the same day the Guardia Civil arrests in Urrutxu and Goizueta the girlfriends of 2 of them, María Angeles Ostiza and Idoia Albistur.
At the 20th of April the Spanish Constitutional Court decides to not take into account the objection made by the last Spanish government of the PP against the debate in the Basque parliament about the 'plan-Ibarretxe'. The new Prime Minister Zapatero didn't want to know in the beginning of this week about the withdrawal of the objection. His party the PSOE was protesting when the PP made the objection, but because of not consulting with them, not against the juridical attack on a parliamentary debate. Now 7 judges were prepared to drop the objection.
Directly after this decision the new minister of justice Juan Fernando Lopez-Aguilar, declared that the implementation of the 'plan-Ibarretxe' would never take place. Every change in the autonomy statutes has to met with 3 conditions, according to Lopez-Aguilar: 'no change in the constitution, respect for the rules and seeing autonomy as the solution for the problems of the people.' According to him Ibarretxe's plan doesn't met any of this.
At the 23rd of April the public prosecutor Maria Angeles Montes of the High Court of the Basque Autonomous Community decides to prosecute 3 members of the Basque parliament in the procedure to remove the members of the Sozialista Abertzaleak (former Batasuna) from the parliamentary benches. The 3, Joseba Egibar, Rafa Larreina and Antton Morcillo, are member of the committee for the house-rules of the parliament and decided on the 6th of June last year to approve the decision of the spokesman of parliament Juan Maria Atutxa and the chairmen of parliament Gorka Knorr and Kontxi Bilbao to not remove the Sozialista Abertzaleak. They said there are no rules to remove them, so we can't do it. Besides that, these people represent voters, not a party. Later this week, the High Court decides not to take into account the objection made by Atutxa, Knorr and Bilbao against their prosecution. Their lawyers defended them by saying that their prosecution was conflicting with their parliamentary immunity. The judge thought that this only was for opinions, not for behaviour and prosecutes them for not following the order of the Spanish High Court.
The first leader of ETA, the now 65 years old Xabier Zumalde, opens in Artea, south of Bilbo, an exhibition of the first years of ETA under Franco and presents his book about this period. Spanish politicians immediately call for a shutdown of the exposition for 'honouring terrorism', but Zumalde 'only wants to show a part of Basque history to show the youngsters of the resistance against the fascist dictatorship of Franco'.
In the Spanish state the European elections are held on the 13th of June and the Basque left will come with the list Herritarren Zerrenda (HZ), the list of the people. It is supported by numerous people from the whole Basque society, poets, actors, sports people, journalists etc. At the 8th of May the campaign to collect 40.000 signatures, needed for participation with a 'civilians list' will end.
At the 25th of April 700 people travel to the most far away prisons, 2000 kilometres, in Spain where Basque political prisoners are held in prison. They staged noise demonstrations against the dispersion of the political prisoners. Despite the huge presence of Spanish riot police all remained calm.

Ga terug naar de nieuws index

Overview events Basque Country nr.4, period the 24th of March until the 27th of April
Leftwing parties in Cuba, Argentina, Chile, Peru and Venezuela condemn the banning of the leftwing Basque political party Batasuna, now one year ago. The banning, with a special designed law, is also used for the predecessors of Batasuna, Herri Batasuna and Euskal Herritarok. Batasuna was put on the EU-list of terrorist organisations by Spain in June 2003. In Madrid the 70 years olds Lluis Maria Xirinacs, priest and ex- senator for the leftwing Catalan ERC, is condemned by the Audiencia Nacional to two years in prison because of 'glorifying terrorism'. He called himself at a meeting in Barcelona a 'friend of the armed organisation ETA and the party Herri Batasuna'. At the 25th of March the car of the girlfriend of the Basque political prisoner Adolfo Abasolo, in which she travels with 3 friends, is total-loss in a car-accident. They were on the way back from the prison of Teruel. Nobody is wounded. At the 14th of April another 2 cars with friends and familymembers of prisoners get total-loss. At the 17th of April 3 people are wounded during a trip to a prisoners-visit when they crash into a van and have to be taken to hospital. Accordinbg to the prisonhelporganisation Etxerat only 8 Basque political prisoners of the 700 are in prisons in the Basque Country itself and there were since the beginning of this year 120 transfers of Basque political prisoners to prisons in Spain. These figures are made know on the weekly Friday protests in the Basque Country in support of the prisoners; in different towns and villages 5000 people demonstrate. The Basque leftwing party Aralar, a split of Batasuna, calls for a united Basque list for the European elections of the 10th of June, at the bases of the 'Bergara Initiative': for the defence for the right of selfdetermination and 2 adjustments Aralar did: one about pluralism and one about the use of political means only. In Bilbao at the 27th of March 3000 people of Gurusoak, the organisation of family-members of Basque youth who are in prison, are tortured or condemned to high prison sentences, demonstrate. They also protest against the murder by a Spanish police officer of Gurusoak-member Angel Berrueta at the 13th of March in Irunea and against the death of Kontxi Sanchez, who died of a heart attack after a charge of the Basque police Ertzaintza. (see Overview nr. 2) In Madrid 20.000 members of the Partido Popular gather in a bull-fighting arena to say goodbye to ex-Prime Minister Aznar. In the PP people are convinced that the election defeat was the result of a 'smear campaign of the left' after the bombs of the 11th of March. Truth is however that the lies of the PP about the perpetrators of the bombings were the reason. According to the Financial Times police and the fire-brigade knew from the first moment on that the explosives used were known from the arsenal of ETA. The PP doesn't want to know of any mistakes; the ex-Minister of Internal Affairs Angel Acebes, who maintained even on election day that ETA was the perpetrator, was appointed to secretary-general of the party. PP-friend and head of the Spanish judges Jesus Cardenal offers also help: he sends an official writing to all courts in the country ordering to prosecute all people who protested at the PP-offices on the night before election day. Also Silvio Berlusconi, friend of Aznar, helps: a week after the bombings he says he 'can't imagine that 4 Bedouins of Al Kaida' did it and that he can't believe 'ETA didn't play a part in the bombings'. At the 29th of March the Basque political prisoners Ainara Gorostiaga, Mikel Soto, Aurken Sola and Jorge Txokarro are released after spent two years in jail without a charge. Investigative judge Baltasar Garzon had put them in conditional terms for 2 years before it became clear that there was no evidence against them whatsoever. Joseba Azkarraga of the Justice department of the Basque government demands that Garzon is immediately put out of his profession and that al his investigations must be investigated. The 4 were suspected of the murder on UPN councillor Jose Javier Mujika, but Garzon has for that Andoni Otegi and Oscar Zelarain, who are imprisoned in France, accused now and asked for their extradition. Otegi and Zelarain already declared in September 2002 that they did the murder. Ainara Gorostiaga declared under torture by the Guardia Civil to the judge to be involved in the murder, but that declaration proved to be false now. Ainara Gorostiaga testifies against the Basque newspaper GARA about the way she was interrogated: naked in a cell, numerous times 'La Bolsa' (the sack) over the head, sometimes 3 or 4 at once so they couldn't be bitten, exhausting exercises, beatings with the flat hand or a magazine. At a certain moment she was given a gun with which, according to the Guardia Civil, the councillor was murdered, and she could choose between collaboration or murder. She had to perform a fake press conference in which she had to denounce torture, she had to sing the 'Eusko Gudariak' (the song of the Basque soldier') and shout 'Long live the Guardia Civil'. She slept 4 hours in 5 days. The Guardia Civil let her know that her mother was arrested too and was being tortured. Before the judge Ainara told her story, but he said she lied and put her in prison. In Brussels the court decides at the 30th of March that the extradition request of Spain for the Basque/Belgium political refugees Rakel Garcia and Luis Moreno is rejected. The Belgian public prosecutor appeals. The case has to be re-judged and is at the 14th of April sent back to the court. A different judge has now to decide. The scientific philosopher and professor Alfontso Martinez Lizarduikoa of the Basque University UPV is arrested at orders of Garzon at the 31st of March at the door of his house and taken to Madrid to be put in the prison hospital. According to Garzon Lizarduikoa is guilty of 'collaboration of the financial apparatus of the armed organisation ETA'. He would have been an intermediate for the apprehending of so-called 'revolutionary taxes'. Numerous colleague's and students protest against his arrest. At the 13th of April he is released on a bail of 30.000 euro. At the 31st of March Theo van Boven, special reporter about torture for the UN, reacts on criticism of the Spanish government on his report about torture in Spain and the Basque Country. Van Boven complains on Spanish institutes who do nothing against torture and even not recognise the existence of torture. In Boussou near the French border in Belgium the Basques Jon Lopez Gomez and Diego Ugarte Lopez de Arkaute are arrested by the Belgian police. They are accused of 'collaboration respectively membership of the armed organisation ETA'. The Spanish Justice department immediately calls for their extradition, to try the new European extradition order. The Belgian Justice department however, wants them to be judged for the possession and use of false papers. Lopez has a conviction standing open for 17 years for the accusation of setting fire to a bus in 1997. At the 2nd of April the prisonhelporganisation Askatasuna reveals its annual report 2003 in Baiona. Spokesman Jean- François Lefort concludes that the mask of Spain has fallen off and that they have set a course right against all human rights treaties in systematic torture and more repression towards people in the Basque Country. The notorious incommunicado- detention became a rule when Basques are arrested. Arnaldo Otegi, former spokesman of the banned party Batasuna and currently representative of the fraction Sozialista Abertzaleak in the Basque regional parliament, is convicted at the 2nd of April by the High Court in the Basque Country to 15 months in prison and 8 years relief of his civil rights. Otegi was convicted for 'glorifying terrorism' because he called at a demonstration for 'applause for all freedom fighters'. Otegi appeals at the Spanish High Court. Before, the parliamentarian Jon Salaberria was convicted to 12 months in prison and exclusion of the political work for 7 years, when he has said in a debate about human rights violations that 'ETA defends the legitimate rights of the Basque people'. In Dax in France Iñaki Esparza is arrested in a operation of the Spanish and French police, in Angoulême the same day Alberto López de Lacalle and Mercedes Chivite are arrested also. The Spanish minister for Internal Affairs Acebes gave directly a statement that the 3 were the leadership of ETA. Later in Lourdes and in the French Basque Country 2 houses of the arrested are searched and explosives and weapons are found. In the houses Jean-Marie Saint-Pée and Josetxo Zeberio are arrested. Thousands of people demonstrate at the 3rd of April in Bilbo under the slogan 'Orain, autodeterminazioa', Self-determination, now. Otegi spoke to the people present and demanded concrete steps of the governing PNV towards the process of self- determination in the Basque Country. Otegi also said that 'the left had done their homework and was prepared to act flexible and pragmatic'. At the 6th of April the Basque political prisoners Loren Arkotxa, Miren Josune Aranburu and Imanol Esnaola are released on bail of 30.000 euro each. At the 8th of May 2003 they were arrested in the police operation against Udalbiltza, the political self- organisation of city councillors, together with Xabier Iragorri, Xabier Alegria and Joseba Garmendia, at orders of judge Garzón. They were accused of 'tempering with society money'. At the 29th of April 2003 8 other members of Udalbiltza, Lander Etxeberria, Miriam Campos, Leire Idoiaga, Eider Casanova, Karmele Urbistondo, Larraitz Sanzberro, Oskar Goñi and Txema Jurado were also arrested and several buildings were closed down. Udalbiltza became a target of Madrid since her establishment in 1999 and was branded as 'illegal counter force'. At the 20th of April 3 others, Oskar Goñi, Lander Etxeberria and Txema Jurado are released on a bail of 30.000 euro each. The 4 remaining in prison are also accused of involvement in other organisations: Miriam Campos with Xaki, the organisation who worked for international solidarity, Karmelo Urbistondo has served 6 years already for another case but remains in prison, Xabier Alegria has to answer his involvement in EKIN, KAS (both part of the Basque liberation movement) and the newspaper Egunkaria and Joseba Garmendia was arrested during the operation of Garzon against the Herriko Taberna's, the left wing popular bars. One day later Xarlo Etxezaharreta, director of the Basque magazine 'Kalegorria' is released on a bail of 60.000 euro. He was arrested at the 28th of September in Abadiño by the Spanish police. As a French citizen he was actually abducted by the Spanish authorities. The Spanish High Court closes the case of the disappearance of Joxe Migel Etxeberria, who was lost in June 1980 in the North of the Basque Country. The Spanish-Basque Batallion, a group of fascists who operated in the same style as the Spanish death squads GAL, declared to have abducted him and that they would kill him. His body was never found. Now, 24 years later, the judge refuses to hear an important witness of the Batallion, and says there is no evidence whatsoever of a crime. At the Topagunea in Itsasondo there are in the weekend of the 10th of April more than 20.000 youngsters present. The Topagunea is organised by the Basque youth movement and was visited by numerous foreign organisations from a.o. Ireland, Corsica, Uruguay, Germany, The Netherlands, Denmark, South Africa and Australia. At the 11th of April tens of thousands of people throughout the whole Basque Country take part in the celebration of 'Aberri Eguna', the national Basque festivity day. There was no united celebration of the political parties, due to the dismissive attitude of the governing PNV. During the 3rd congress of the 'Nazio Eztabaida Gunea', the National Debate Forum, again concrete steps are formulated that have to lead to the political solution of the political conflict in the Basque Country. In the Forum are numerous people on personal account of all political parties and from the whole Basque society. At the 12th of April the prosecution of the Basque political prisoner Paulo Elkoro for his involvement in an attack on a barrack of the Guardia Civil starts. Elkoro was extradited in November 2003 by Germany to Spain and is now waiting his trial in prison in Madrid. Another accusation in the extradition order was 'support of ETA', but no charges are filed yet. This accusation is based on a declaration of 2 people who were tortured in the hands of the Guardia Civil, especially to blame Elkoro. The Basque political prisoners Txus Goikoetxea, Sebas Lasa and Zigor Larredonda are in hunger strike for one month now. They protest against the isolation-politics and demand the unification of all Basque political prisoners. Since the bombings of 11 March the situation of the Basque political prisoners became worse and Basque are threatened and beaten by prison staff nearly every day. At the 16th of April the ex-directors of the Spanish secret service CESID are again relieved from charges by the Spanish High Court. The two, Emilio Alonso Manglano and Javier Calderón were before convicted to 3 years in prison because tapping the offices of the now banned party Herri Batasuna. According to the High Court tapping is in these circumstances no criminal behaviour. In Chatellerault José Luis Campo, Iñigo Elizegi and Inocente Soria are arrested by the French police and accused of 'collaboration with the armed organisation ETA'. At the same day the Guardia Civil arrests in Urrutxu and Goizueta the girlfriends of 2 of them, María Angeles Ostiza and Idoia Albistur. At the 20th of April the Spanish Constitutional Court decides to not take into account the objection made by the last Spanish government of the PP against the debate in the Basque parliament about the 'plan-Ibarretxe'. The new Prime Minister Zapatero didn't want to know in the beginning of this week about the withdrawal of the objection. His party the PSOE was protesting when the PP made the objection, but because of not consulting with them, not against the juridical attack on a parliamentary debate. Now 7 judges were prepared to drop the objection. Directly after this decision the new minister of justice Juan Fernando Lopez-Aguilar, declared that the implementation of the 'plan-Ibarretxe' would never take place. Every change in the autonomy statutes has to met with 3 conditions, according to Lopez-Aguilar: 'no change in the constitution, respect for the rules and seeing autonomy as the solution for the problems of the people.' According to him Ibarretxe's plan doesn't met any of this. At the 23rd of April the public prosecutor Maria Angeles Montes of the High Court of the Basque Autonomous Community decides to prosecute 3 members of the Basque parliament in the procedure to remove the members of the Sozialista Abertzaleak (former Batasuna) from the parliamentary benches. The 3, Joseba Egibar, Rafa Larreina and Antton Morcillo, are member of the committee for the house-rules of the parliament and decided on the 6th of June last year to approve the decision of the spokesman of parliament Juan Maria Atutxa and the chairmen of parliament Gorka Knorr and Kontxi Bilbao to not remove the Sozialista Abertzaleak. They said there are no rules to remove them, so we can't do it. Besides that, these people represent voters, not a party. Later this week, the High Court decides not to take into account the objection made by Atutxa, Knorr and Bilbao against their prosecution. Their lawyers defended them by saying that their prosecution was conflicting with their parliamentary immunity. The judge thought that this only was for opinions, not for behaviour and prosecutes them for not following the order of the Spanish High Court. The first leader of ETA, the now 65 years old Xabier Zumalde, opens in Artea, south of Bilbo, an exhibition of the first years of ETA under Franco and presents his book about this period. Spanish politicians immediately call for a shutdown of the exposition for 'honouring terrorism', but Zumalde 'only wants to show a part of Basque history to show the youngsters of the resistance against the fascist dictatorship of Franco'. In the Spanish state the European elections are held on the 13th of June and the Basque left will come with the list Herritarren Zerrenda (HZ), the list of the people. It is supported by numerous people from the whole Basque society, poets, actors, sports people, journalists etc. At the 8th of May the campaign to collect 40.000 signatures, needed for participation with a 'civilians list' will end. At the 25th of April 700 people travel to the most far away prisons, 2000 kilometres, in Spain where Basque political prisoners are held in prison. They staged noise demonstrations against the dispersion of the political prisoners. Despite the huge presence of Spanish riot police all remained calm.
Ga terug naar de nieuws index